Inside the success of North Crowley’s twin No. 2-ranked basketball forces
.png "North Crowley boys basketball guard Isaak Hayes (left) and North Crowley girls basketball guard Jamari Milton (right) have helped power their Panthers teams to No. 2 Class 6A state rankings.")
North Crowley boys basketball head coach Tommy Brakel has been through it with Panther basketball.
He has over 800 wins, 12 regional semifinal appearances and a state title. That kind of resume puts him in rare air, not just in Texas basketball, but high school basketball as a whole.
And the elite consistency speaks for itself, especially in Class 6A.
This season, the Panthers (26-3, 9-0 District 3-6A) are the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches’ No. 2-ranked Class 6A squad and MaxPreps’ No. 22-ranked squad nationwide.
The wild thing is that the boys’ program isn’t the only No. 2-ranked 6A basketball team at the school.
No. 2 North Crowley girls basketball (26-4, 11-0) is also thriving and on the verge of its first undefeated district run under coach Lori Shead. The girls beat Weatherford 84-29 Friday and will still need to defeat reigning Class 6A Division II champion Boswell, a team that struggled with injuries early in the season.
Year after year, the North Crowley boys earn the right to be called contenders. However, that doesn’t mean winning is guaranteed in the grueling gauntlet that’s the 6A Division I basketball playoffs.
The Panthers have battled against the best in Texas since their last state title in 2008, but have fallen just short in an effort to reclaim the throne. In 2025, they fell 65-60 to Allen in the regional semifinals.
The Eagles fell to Duncanville 77-74 in the state semifinals, and Duncanville beat Bellaire 54-52 in the state final.
Brakel said he doesn’t view it as an effort to “get over the hump” because he fields a different team each year that inherits different situations.
One thing remains the same every year: The competition is incredibly tough, and the margin for error is incredibly slim.
“To be the 6A state champions, you have to be really good,” Brakel said. “You have to be lucky. … What we’ve talked to this team about is just the importance of valuing possessions. Every possession, regardless of where it is in the game.”
Once again, North Crowley is bound for the large school bracket and has just about as good a shot as anyone in Texas. Although Brakel addresses the “elephant in the room” of the No. 2 ranking, he knows that it’s just a number.
“[Rankings put] a huge target on your back,” Brakel said. “And you know, there’s a lot of pressure that builds up. The more and more outside noise that you have to deal with, and these kids have to deal with so much nowadays, with social media and all of that kind of stuff. And it’s just trying to block out the noise, block out the pressure.”
Since 2007, the Panthers have posted nine seasons with an undefeated district record. Now, they’re knocking on the double-digit door but still have work to do.
On Friday, they took one step closer to a district title with a smothering 95-43 victory over Weatherford.
North Crowley boys as well-rounded as ever
When it comes to talent, there are few teams that can match North Crowley’s punch. But what makes the group stand out is that ability meeting preparation, detail and chemistry.
You can say that for many of North Crowley’s squads over the years. What makes this one different? To Brakel, the offensive depth stands out.
“A lot of different people can score the basketball for us,” Brakel said. “So, offensively, right now, it’s one of the better teams that we’ve had over the years, and they are really starting to understand the value of the fact that they’re going to have to be really good defensively.”
North Crowley has kept winning, even with one of the state’s most difficult schedules.
On top of District 3-6A, including state-ranked Mansfield Lake Ridge, Mansfield and a solid Crowley squad, the Panthers have clashed with No. 10 nationally ranked Wisconsin Lutheran in a game that they lost 57-54.
The only “wake-up call”, according to Brakel, was an early-season tournament loss against Iowa Colony. The Panthers fell 74-52 and learned a valuable lesson: Effort always beats talent.
“I think it kind of lit a fire and got their attention,” Brakel said. “On any given night, we’ve got to be able to match people’s intensity, not just be a better basketball team than them.”
The players who power the Panthers
Junior Isaak Hayes, a 2025 All-Area selection, has been a standout Fort Worth-area player since he was a freshman, and might just be the most skilled player in Dallas-Fort Worth. He’s a tough shot maker with a shifty handle, can make contested shots from distance, has a nice floater and makes the right passes.
Like many elite players, he wants the ball, wants to take big shots and wants to make winning plays. The game-changing confidence gives North Crowley an edge and someone to rely on when games get tense.
Against Weatherford, he scored 35 points with 10 rebounds, five assists and two steals. When he was hot, he scored at will, and when he wasn’t, he affected the game in other ways.
“And when you have a complete basketball player like him … that’s when you have a chance to do something special,” Brakel said. “He’s the kind of kid that doesn’t mind taking the big shot, that wants to put a team on his back.”
Hayes, who holds offers from TCU and Kansas State, went into the contest averaging 17.4 points, 2.0 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 2.0 steals per game. In district play, he is shooting 92.9% from the free-throw line and 45.7% from distance.
North Crowley also has 6-foot-7 senior Trey Hall, who provides size and length without sacrificing skill. He averages 14.8 points and leads the team with 9.4 rebounds and 1.7 blocks. In district, he is shooting 42.3% from distance.
“He can [perform] in a very unselfish way,” Brakel said. “He’s gotten better on the defensive end of the floor than he was last year. He’s just really turned into a good high school basketball player who has a chance to be really, really good at the next level as well.”
Fort Worth Eastern Hills transfer Alex Barther II, a 6-foot-4 guard, has also made quite the impact. The three-star prospect has offers from TCU, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, SMU and more.
He averages 12.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists, doing a little bit of everything. Barther entered the Weatherford game shooting 47.4% from distance in district.
“He’s just a big, strong kid that can do a lot of different things to help you know on the floor,” Brakel said. “He can be your defensive stopper. He can score it at a high clip and shoot a high percentage. And there are a lot of things that … he really does well to help us win games.”
Although the stats don’t pop off the page, and he doesn’t get the limelight, the Panthers have one more player who is equally important to a winning brand of basketball: junior guard Kameron Price.
He is the glue guy who does all the dirty work and takes care of the basketball. It’s the type of selfless, team-first play every championship contender needs and that every coach loves.
Brakel raved about his impact, calling him the “engine that makes everything go.” Price could be a high-scoring point-per-game player, but he knows and embraces his role and understands that those numbers don’t define his success.
“A lot of times he’ll guard one of the best players on their team,” Brakel said. “He rebounds the basketball on the defensive end. He sets us off in transition, and he’s just the clip that he is going at with his assist-to-turnover ratio is really just phenomenal.”
North Crowley girls on the rise
The North Crowley girls have won 18 in a row, and that includes a victory over Class 5A Division I champion Denton Ryan that avenged one of their losses this season.
Shead scheduled nationally ranked squads in non-district to help prepare the team. The Panthers went into those games not just wanting to win, but to bury the opposition. Domination has been their mantra this season.
“The stage was set early with our schedule, and I think that it just did nothing but just make us better,” Shead said.
Two of the victories early in district play were extremely hard-fought. The Panthers beat Mansfield 56-52 and Mansfield Legacy 54-51.
The next time they matched up, it wasn’t competitive, which showcased the team’s growth. North Crowley won both games by more than 20 points.
Leading the charge are two extremely effective seniors: guard Jamari Milton and forward Mecca Crawford.
Milton, a Wichita State signee, has a strong handle and leads the offense. She is a consistent top contributor, but Shead thinks she hasn’t played her best basketball yet and has a feeling it’ll come when the Panthers need it most.
“Jamari, she’s just innately a phenomenal athlete,” Shead said.
As one of the best forward-center prospects in the Fort Worth area, Crawford commanded attention and recently signed with Incarnate Word. Shead raved about her work ethic.
“Mecca just gives 110% all the time,” Shead said. “And when Mecca is not at 110%, there’s something really wrong. And she’s such a great kid. She’s coachable. She’s really still raw, you know? There are things that I can only imagine that she’ll do on a collegiate level, but as a whole, she just wants to be better. She wants to do what’s right.”
With Shead in her ninth year as a head coach, the Panthers have the right mix of guidance, talent, senior leadership and experience to make some noise, although the path ahead will be tough.
Last year’s squad fell 49-45 in a regional final heartbreaker to Plano East.
“I think they just gave them the fuel that they needed, first of all, to let them know what kind of team they could be, because nobody expected that last year from us,” Shead said. “So this year, it’s been all about avenging that loss. Not wanting to feel that again.”
This story was originally published February 10, 2026 at 4:30 AM.
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